


Our home (part I)

by thewolvescalledmehome



Series: Home [4]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Eventual Smut, F/M, Moving In Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 20:20:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13865298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewolvescalledmehome/pseuds/thewolvescalledmehome
Summary: Jon and Sansa move in together. Catelyn and Sansa have a heart to heart.Third post-fic one shot in the I'll make this feel like home series.





	Our home (part I)

Sansa had just flung her bag on her bed when her phone rang. Margaery’s name was displayed on her screen. Sansa glanced away, assuming it was a text, but when it kept ringing, she abandoned her attempt at unpacking and answered it.

“Hey.”

“Hey, do you remember that internship I applied for last spring?” Margaery said by way of greeting.

“The one for Essos? Did you get it?” Sansa asked, excited for her best friend.

“I’m a finalist. I’ll find out next week.”

“Ooh, congrats!”

“Thanks. That’s not why I’m calling though. It’s the house—if I get the internship.”

“Oh,” Sansa muttered, realizing what Margaery meant.

Margaery’s parents owned the house they’d been staying in the last two years.

“You can still stay in your room, but it’ll just be you with Loras downstairs. Dany’s taking a year to travel with Drogo. The house will be pretty empty.”

“Right, yeah, of course.”

Sansa heard Margaery start to say something else, but that was drowned out by what she heard coming from the hall.

Jon laughing.

She moved towards the door, peeking her head out.

He was coming up the stairs with Arya on his back and both of their bags in his hands. He’d lost a bet with her one the way back from White Harbor and Arya was too impatient to save it for something good.

Sansa leaned against the frame, watching him.

“Sansa? Did you hear me?”

“No, sorry. What’d you say?”

“If you want, you could try to find another roommate I could sublet my room to. Start looking and then I’ll let you know as soon as I find out if I got the internship.”

“Yeah, all right,” Sansa agreed, still only half listening. She was focused on Jon.

“Or let me know, you know, if you decide to make other plans.” Sansa felt a sudden rush of butterflies, as if Margaery had read the thoughts Sansa was only half thinking.

“Right, yeah. I will.”

Sansa asked Margaery a few more questions about the internship while she started unpacking before they hung up. Once she set the phone down, she left her half unpacked bag again and went to Jon’s room.

He was unpacking with his back to her. She leaned against the frame, watching him. He jumped when he turned to put his clothes in the dresser on the other side of the room.

“Seven hells, you startled me.”

“Sorry.”

Jon stared at her, waiting for her to say something, she was sure. She had come to his room, after all. The idea she had humming inside her started to bubble up, but she couldn’t find the words for it. She couldn’t even put it in words in her mind. The idea was too new.

Sansa realized she certainly hadn’t thought this through—she’d barely thought about it at all.

And she didn’t know if it would even happen—she couldn’t voice the idea until she knew for sure it was an option or not.

“Do you want to go for ice cream after dinner?” she voiced instead.

“Sure.”

* * *

Margaery called Sansa again late in the next week, her voice filled with thinly veiled excitement.

“I got my internship,” she started as soon as Sansa answered.

“Ooh! Yay! I’m so excited for you!”

“Thanks. Let me know if you find someone to sublet. Or, you know, something else. I don’t leave until late August, so if you need help looking for a roommate or…you know, whatever you decide.”

Sansa felt her lips quirk up at how well Margaery knew her. Her best friend was carefully suggesting what Sansa was not yet fully thinking.

What she was too scared to give actual thought to.

“But, I mean, if you want the whole house to yourself you can do that too,” Margaery added. Sansa knew it was because she’d been quiet.

“Can I let you know? I wanna think about it for a bit. Maybe talk to a few people.”

“Of course. Just let me know.”

“Yeah, all right. I’ll let you know as soon as I figure it out.”

When Sansa hung up, she pulled her legs up, resting her chin on her knee.

She had an idea—the one she’d been dancing around for the past week.

She really didn’t like the idea of living in the house with Loras on her own. She also didn’t really want to get an apartment on her own—even if she did have Lady.

Sansa knew what would make sense, even if it was a little early.

They had only been together for five months—she knew it was a little early for them to consider moving in together, but she didn’t see a whole lot of other options if she didn’t want to live alone.

Sansa knew that Jon and Ygritte had moved in together relatively early in their relationship, from what Jon had mentioned. She also knew that he never cited that as a reason for their relationship failing, though that could just be because it never really came up in conversation. All of the things she knew about their relationship were things he was scared of happening in theirs, like the lopsidedness he told her about when they first started dating.

She couldn’t help but try to imagine what Jon’s reaction would be to her suggesting they move in together.

All she could picture was his hesitancy that was so prominent at the start of their relationship and him saying _Sansa_ in that way he did sometimes, with the implied ellipsis at the end.

She thought maybe— _maybe_ —if she was suggesting they become roommates instead of full on moving in together he might have a different reaction. If she just mentioned the idea of him moving into Margaery’s room, where they technically wouldn’t really be living together—at least not any more than her and Margaery have lived together.

Sansa decided that that was the way she was going to approach the topic—as becoming roommates instead of moving in together.

If only she could put a voice to the words.

* * *

It was another week before Sansa found the time or the words to propose her idea to Jon.

They had taken Ghost and Lady to the park in town, and it was just the two of them—not out of the Starks, but in the whole park.

Sansa decided it was now or never. They would be returning to school within the month and she was running out of time.

“Margaery won her internship in Essos,” Sansa started. Jon’s head turned towards her, even as he tossed a stick for Ghost.

“Oh, yeah? That’s exciting.”

“Yeah—she’s really happy. She’s going to be gone for the year, though, so the house will be pretty empty. Dany and Drogo are traveling for a year,” she added at Jon’s confused look.

Sansa was trying to watch him without alerting him to how closely she was trying to gauge his reaction.

“Oh,” was all he said, turning back to Ghost. “Is Margaery not going to sublet?” he asked once he threw the stick again.

“She might. She wanted to know what I thought.”

“About getting a new roommate? That’s nice of her.”

“She, erm… She was wondering if I had anyone in mind. Since it would be the room next to mine.” Sansa looked at him from the corner of her eye, waiting for him to catch on, for his face to change.

“Oh?” There was a new quality in his voice now—it wasn’t guarded but it wasn’t surprised either. But it wasn’t the general interest he’d had in his voice before.

“How would you feel? About us being roommates?” Sansa asked finally. Lady was circling around her, waiting for her to throw the ball again. When Jon didn’t respond right away, Sansa hurled the ball as far as she could.

“Do you want to move in together?” Jon asked, fully turning to face her.

“Well, it wouldn’t really be moving in together. We’d be roommates. We’d have separate bedrooms.”

“Like training-wheels moving in together?” Jon rephrased. Sansa couldn’t help but giggle.

“Yeah, I guess you could put it that way.”

Sansa was just able to see the twitch of his lips before he threw Ghost’s stick again.

“I’d like that,” he said softly, touching her hand gently. “We’d have to look at the logistics of it—the lease, the rent, all that, but I like the idea of moving in with you.”

“Good,” Sansa grinned. “I like the idea of moving in with you too,” she said before kissing him.

It was later that night when Sansa heard a knock on her door and she didn’t need to guess who it was knocking at ten-thirty at night. She knew it was Jon, but she was floored by the fact that he was. For the past two months, not once had he sought her out after they’d gone to bed.

“Jon? Everything all right?” she asked when she opened the door.

“Yeah, yeah. I thought maybe we could talk. About moving in together.” It was then she noticed his laptop in his hands.

“Oh, yeah,” she responded rather lamely, moving out of the way so he could come in. She noted how he only closed the door enough to muffle their voices and the light spilling into the hall.

Sansa settled on her bed, back against the wall, and pulled her laptop into her lap as well. Jon sat beside her, just close enough that their hips were brushing.

“Sorry that it’s so late. I couldn’t sleep,” Jon admitted, a pale blush creeping over his face. Sansa realized after a beat it was because of excitement and not nerves that he couldn’t sleep. She felt a grin over take her face.

“So here’s my budget…” he started, opening his screen to a spreadsheet. Sansa left her laptop closed. She didn’t have anything like that.

Jon talked her through his budget, explaining how much he currently paid for everything, and what his range would be. He said he had enough saved up that he could definitely upgrade on an apartment. His current apartment, Sansa knew, was the one he moved into right after he and Ygritte broke up and moved out of their shared apartment. He said it was the cheapest one he could find at the time. Cost and availability were the only things he was focused on.

“So how much is the rent for the house?” Jon asked, opening a blank spreadsheet. Sansa felt her stomach drop.

“I, erm, don’t know, actually. My parents pay the rent. Margaery’s parents own the house,” she said, as if that made up for the fact that she didn’t know how much her rent was.

“Oh. Erm, okay. So you can talk to your parents tomorrow and we can figure it out then,” Jon said after the briefest pause.

“Yeah.” Sansa watched with a pang as Jon closed his laptop and looked as though he was going to head back to his room, now that they couldn’t go over the logistics of becoming roommates. “Do you wanna watch something?” Sansa asked after a moment’s hesitation. Jon glanced at her phone. It was quarter to eleven. “We’ll leave the door open. They can’t complain.”

“Sure,” Jon said quietly, moving his laptop out of his lap. Sansa opened hers, and called up the TV show they were slowly making their way through. She settled the laptop on the bed and lay down in front of it, feeling Jon shift down behind her.

She only made it through the opening credits before she was asleep.

* * *

Sansa got the paperwork from her parents the next day and her and Jon sat down at the kitchen table to work it out. She passed the paperwork immediately to Jon, only understanding bits and pieces of it.

Her heart dropped like a stone when Jon’s eyebrows went up.

“You said Margery’s parents own the house?” Jon asked. She could hear the skepticism.

“Yeah. When Dad and I looked for places last summer, Margaery offered us the deal. It’s cheaper than Robb’s rent and closer to campus.” Jon let out a low whistle before sighing, flipping through the lease again.

“I’m sorry, Sansa… I don’t know if I can swing this…” Her stomach followed her heart near her feet.

“It’s okay,” she murmured, looking away to hide the disappointment she felt.

“We can still look into getting someplace together, though. If you want to,” he offered softly. Sansa felt her heart lift.

“Really? You’re sure? Even after…” Sansa trailed off, unsure of how to phrase her question.

“Yeah. I think so. Our problems were never specifically related to the fact that we were living together,” Jon shrugged.

“Okay. If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure. I like waking up with you too much,” he said tenderly, leaning in close.

“Get a room,” Robb called, walking through the dining room. Sansa threw a wadded up napkin at him.

* * *

In the following two weeks, Sansa and Jon found a list of apartments that were reasonably priced, reasonably distanced from campus, and allowed dogs.

The list was fairly short, but there was a list, and it filled Sansa with an excitement she couldn’t fully explain.

They planned on heading back to a few weeks early so that they could view the apartments and—hopefully—sign a lease together.

The only problem Sansa saw was telling her parents.

She thought her dad would be fairly easy—she knew he liked Jon—and Robb and Jeyne had moved in together without issue. But she didn’t know how Catelyn would respond.

Which was why, early in the week they were planning to head back, Sansa sat down with her, to tell her on her own.

They sat in the living room, Catelyn knitting something that would probably end up being one of their Christmas presents. Sansa had her sketchbook in her hands, but that was mostly for something to hold more than anything else.

“Mum? There’s something I’d like to talk to you about,” Sansa started hesitantly, anxiously rubbing her finger against the edge of the book.

“Hmm?”

“Margaery got that internship in Essos,” she began with, and explained what her living situation would look like with Margaery gone. “Which is why… Jon and I are looking into moving in together,” she ended in a rush.

“Well, that’s good,” Catelyn stated. Sansa opened her mouth, one of her many arguments poised on the tip of her tongue, before her mother’s words registered.

“I—what?”

“Moving in together. It’s smart. I’d feel much better knowing you’re with him than all alone in that big house,” her mother explained reasonably.

“Oh,” Sansa muttered, unable to hide her surprise.

“Why do you sound so surprised?” Catelyn asked, looking up from her needles for the first time.

“Well…erm, not to be rude, but you didn’t seem to approve of him,” Sansa admitted. She heard Catelyn sigh, and she turned her eyes to focus on the sketchbook in her lap.

“Sansa, I think I should explain myself,” Catelyn started, causing Sansa’s eyes to snap up. To her surprise, her mother had set aside her knitting and was moving to sit beside her on the sofa. “I was unfair to Jon, but not because of Jon. Because of who he reminded me of.”

Sansa felt her eyebrows rise in curiosity.

“Do you know how me and your father met?”

“He was at RU and you lived nearby,” Sansa shrugged. She didn’t find it a particularly romantic meet cute. It was standard and practical, much like her parents.

“We both went to RU,” Catelyn corrected with a slight sniff and Sansa felt herself flush. “But that’s not the full story. Your father wasn’t the first Stark man I was engaged to.”

Sansa heard the words but it took her several seconds of staring at her mother to comprehend them.

“WHAT.” Sansa half-shouted once the words registered.

“Brandon. Your dad’s older brother.”

“You were _engaged_ to _Dad’s_ _brother_?” Sansa repeated, incredulous. “What happened? How’d you end up marrying Dad?”

“I met Brandon when I was a freshman. He was three years older than me. I fell in love with him instantly—he was this broken, wild man and I thought I could save him. He wasn’t a foundling—obviously—but he was lost. He and Jon had the same look in their eyes.”

Sansa remembered that look—the one that marked him so obviously as a stray—the one that made her decide she needed to take her duties as his Secret Santa seriously. Because she hoped that she could do something to change that look in his eyes.

“How long did you date?” Sansa found herself asking. She was trying to picture her mother with someone who had eyes like Jon but looked like a cross between her dad and Uncle Benjen. She was having trouble imagining it.

“Two years. He proposed after the first three months. I said no. I thought he was crazy, but he just said _all right, I’ll wait._ He proposed again a little over a year later. I said yes that time.”

“But… what happened?”

“I did start to fix him, but… There as something in him, Sansa. Something wild and untamable. He’d do these crazy stunts, dares—he didn’t always think things through. He was especially stupid after he and his dad fought. That happened a lot. One night it was raining, and they had a big blow out… He hopped on his motorcycle, like he always did. Took the corners too fast, like he always did...” Catelyn paused. Sansa felt her heart in her throat.

She’d known her dad had had an older brother that had died before any of them were born, but that was all she knew. No one ever really mentioned it. Or him.

“He died before the ambulance arrived.”

Sansa turned her face away, wanting to give her mother a moment of privacy. When her mother didn’t continue, she turned back, unable to stop herself from asking.

“But… How’d you end up marrying Dad?”

Catelyn sighed again.

“I’d known your dad, from dating Brandon for two years. We were friends. We were there for each other after the funeral. And he was there for me when I thought I was pregnant.”

Sansa felt her mouth open stupidly.

“It was two months after Brandon’s accident. I was terrified of anyone finding out, terrified of having to do it on my own. When I told your dad…he offered to marry me.” Sansa’s heart swelled.

“We found out later that I wasn’t pregnant. It was the grief affecting my body. But we didn’t want to break the engagement and have to explain why…so a year later, we got married. Your dad convinced me to finish my degree, and I moved with him back to Winterfell.”

“So… you and Dad didn’t love each other?” Sansa asked, her heart breaking at the idea. She had always seen her parents as constant. They were never overly affectionate with each other—at least that she saw, but they did have five children, she thought—but she also never saw them fight. They were just always there and always happy. Her dad always had a kiss for her mum. Her mum always had dinner ready for him when he got him late.

“We were friends. The love came later,” Catelyn shrugged. “But I wanted to explain to you why I was the way I was when you and Jon started dating. I see a lot of myself in you and I saw a lot of Brandon in him, but I see now that he’s not. He’s far more like your father than Brandon.”

“Mum, ew,” Sansa said before she could help herself. Catelyn chuckled softly.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“No, I know. What’d you get a degree in?” Sansa asked, feeling ashamed that she didn’t already know. She hadn’t even known her mother had gone to university. She thought she went straight from high school to being a wife and a mother.

“Teaching. I taught elementary school until I had Robb.”

“And then you decided you wanted to be a stay at home mum?” Sansa asked, unable to stop herself. Her and Catelyn had never had this open of a conversation and she wanted to understand the woman she thought she had known.

“It was early in our relationship. We hadn’t talked about having children. I was doing everything I could to make your dad happy—not like that, bless the Seven, you’re as bad as Arya. I wanted to prove to him marrying me wasn’t a mistake. I wanted to prove that I would be a good wife and good mother. So I took an extended leave, and then it was just too hard to go back.”

“Oh,” Sansa muttered, so many things clicking into place: her mother saying how she always played the bad cop, her mother cooking and cleaning her whole childhood—even now. Catelyn had been playing the dutiful wife she thought Ned had wanted, trying to give him everything, to make up for the fact that he had not been her first choice.

“Thanks for telling me, Mum,” Sansa murmured, unsure what to do with all the new information she had swirling in her head. They hugged briefly before Catelyn returned to pick up her knitting and Sansa stood to find someplace to process everything on her own.

On her way out though, she passed Ned, heading towards his office.

“Dad?”

“Yeah, sweetheart?”

“You and Mum should go on a nice date night while we’re all still here to look after Bran and Rickon,” she suggested.

“Oh, hmm. Good idea. I’ll make some calls.” He was muttering ideas to himself as he entered his office and Sansa grinned softly, deciding to go find Jon.

* * *

When they returned to KLU, Sansa and Jon filled their days with apartment viewing. After each one, Sansa felt a little of her hope shrink. Each time they had to cross an apartment off the list for some reason: too small, too dirty, too far from campus, didn’t allow the type of dogs that Lady and Ghost were. It was looking like they wouldn’t be living together.

Sansa spent al the time they weren’t actually looking at apartments, digging deeper online, looking for more options. She wasn’t finding much. She was on the sixth page of the Google search, and all the listings showing up looked worse than the ones they’d already viewed.

It was Robb who found them an apartment.

“Any luck finding one yet?” he asked over the phone. Sansa was sitting on the floor of Jon’s apartment, ignoring her unhelpful laptop and brushing Lady’s fur to make herself feel better.

“No,” she muttered, sullenly.

“Good. I think I might have a place for you.” Sansa’s heart jumped before she could think.

“It’s not in your building, is it?” she asked hesitantly.

“Seven hells, no. It’s weird enough that you and Jon are moving in together. I don’t want you moving in next to me. No, it’s a place Jeyne and I looked at. Got a pen? I’ll give you the address.” Sansa scrambled around Jon’s place, looking for a pen and paper, much to both dogs’ irritation.

“Yeah, ready.” Robb rattled off the address and Sansa quickly scribbled it down.

“Good luck, Sans.”

“Thanks.”

As soon as she hung up, she texted the address to Jon.

_Want to check it out when you get off work?_

**Yeah. I’ll meet you there?**

Sansa sent a thumbs up in response and rushed to call the landlord to set up a viewing.

 

Three hours later, she met Jon outside of the apartment building. It was on the backside of campus, easily within walking distance. There were a few apartment buildings on this side, but it was mostly duplexes and residential living rather than college students.

The building was nice though, nicer than some of the other buildings she and Jon had looked at.

They greeted the landlord at the door and he took them to see the apartment. It was in the back, on the first floor.

“Comes with appliances. There’s in-unit laundry. There’s a sofa too, that the last tenants left. It’s probably clean. Bathroom and bedroom through there,” he said, waving to the hallway off to the side.

Sansa wasn’t immediately heading toward the hallway though. She was looking at the back wall of the living room. It was a sliding glass door that led to a patio. The landlord noticed her looking at the door.

“First floor gets a patio and a bit of a backyard. Upper levels have little balconies.”

“And you’re dog friendly?” she asked, as Jon came out from the hallway.

“Yup. There’s a dog park nearby, too. Here’s a copy of the lease.” He passed over a few papers that she and Jon flipped through.

It met all of their requirements.

It was within their price range.

“If you’re not ready to sign yet, that’s fine. Take your time. But this is a good starter place. Lots of young couples come through here.”

Sansa glanced over at Jon, who was rereading the lease. She hoped he could read the plea in her eyes. This place was perfect for them.

“Do you have a pen?” Jon asked her quietly.

* * *

Sansa called Robb the next day to thank him.

“You need my help moving, don’t you?” he said immediately when he answered though.

“Only if you want to. Jon’s got the Night’s Watch lads coming over to help.”

“Jeyne and I’ll come over later to help with the packing. I think we’ve some boxes somewhere you can use.”

She talked to Robb for a bit longer, telling him he could drop Jeyne off at Margaery’s and then come help Jon pack up his things. The lads from the shop were meeting her at Margaery’s, since she had more furniture that needed moving. All Jon had was a handful of boxes of clothes and dishes.

He’d managed to do most of his packing last night, after they’d signed the lease. It was easier for him, considering his dresser was a series of milk crates.

As he’d packed, Sansa kept watching him for signs of hesitation or wariness, but she didn’t see anything—not even tension in his shoulders or that look in his eye. She thought maybe she’d see some remorse in leaving his apartment—she knew it was the longest he’d stayed in one place—but he seemed excited to be moving into the new place.

She wanted to make sure though, which was why she waited for Robb to get there before going to meet Jeyne at the lads at Margaery’s.

Sansa went through and marked everything that needed to be moved before meeting Jeyne in her room to pack up everything else.

“Are you excited?” Jeyne asked almost immediately. “Or are you nervous?”

“Why would I be nervous? I love Jon. We spent long weekends together at their of our places.”

“Yeah, but it’s not the same. I thought the same thing when Robb and I moved in together.”

Sansa briefly remembered Robb being more on edge after they’d moved in together, and hearing something about them fighting a lot.

“We’ll be fine,” Sansa muttered, taking a box to the living room, and leaving Jeyne to finish hers. She didn’t need to hear about how Robb and Jeyne went though a rough patch right after they moved in together.

The lads were far more helpful, in Sansa’s opinion. They were all openly excited for them, asking about the apartment, if they would have a house warming get together. If there was anything any of them could do, aside from helping them move.

* * *

It was late afternoon by the time Sansa had all of her stuff from Margaery’s packed in boxes. The lads had made several trips back and forth with her bed, dresser, and the love seat from the living room. Jon had texted her earlier that he was getting everything set up at the apartment—not to worry about grocery shopping or going to get the necessities. Just to come over once she was done at Margaery’s.

Sansa heard foot steps approaching—she thought it was Edd from the sound of his boots. She had one box left, sitting at her feet. She made to move to lift it though. She was staring at the empty room.

“Is it weird?” Sansa turned—she’d been right. It was Edd. He leaned against the door frame opposite her.

“Hmm?”

“Is it weird? Moving?”

Sansa shrugged.

“It’d be weirder moving out of my parents’. I only lived here for a year. It’s a little weird seeing it empty, though.”

“I’d bet.” Edd paused. Sansa looked around the room one last time, doing a sweep to make sure she didn’t forget anything.

“You ready?”

“Yeah,” she said. She stooped to pick up the box but Edd beat her to it, carrying it out for her.

While Edd loaded the box in the back of his truck, Sansa stood outside, looking up at the green house with the gold trim. She hadn’t felt much of anything but excitement when she moved in—thinking she was finally becoming a woman, but now she realized that was just a pit stop. This was her officially leaving her childhood behind and becoming a woman.

“Why’re we going this way?” Sansa asked, as Edd turned in the opposite direction from the building. Edd shrugged. “Edd,” she tried again.

“You finished packing early,” he answered as if that answered her question.

“And you’re, what? Stalling?”

“Yup. Since you know, got any ideas on how to kill an hour?”

* * *

Sansa was starving by the time Edd finally pulled up in front of the apartment building. She noticed that the trucks of the other lads and Robb’s car were all gone.

“Wait here. Jon’ll come out and get you,” Edd told her. She watched as he hopped down and went to the back to grab her last couple boxes.

She had no idea what Jon was planning, but it made her body hum.

Edd came back out a few minutes later, Jon behind him. Sansa took that as her cue to hop down.

“Well, there goes that part of the plan,” she heard Edd mutter before jumping in the truck. She glanced questioningly at Jon.

“What’re you planning?” she asked Jon. The question didn’t come out as flirty as she intended it. She was too busy searching his eyes for that hesitancy or regret.

“Nothin’,” he muttered coyly. Sansa glanced at him sharply, but his arms were already around her and she was being lifted into the air.

“Jon! What’re you doing!” she shrieked, her arms going quickly around his neck.

He didn’t answer, just proceeded carrying her into the building, and he didn’t set her down until they were standing in their new living room.

She gasped once they were in the room.

The apartment was all set up, dinner on the table, with a candle lit in the middle. Sansa realized after a moment it was the candle Arya’d given her for Christmas.

“You got everything unpacked?”

“The room, too. The lads helped. I did your top drawer, though, don’t worry,” he added after a beat. Sansa opened her mouth to say something, but her stomach rumbled again. “Let’s eat before we do anything else.”

“Where’d you find the table?” she asked, sitting down at it.

“Grenn’s parents’ garage. Couple of the lads donated some pieces.”

“That was nice of them.”

They ate quietly then, though the quiet on Sansa’s part was due to her excitement to finish. She knew something was waiting for them to be done.

Once they finished, Sansa stood to take the dishes to the sink. She rinsed them and put them in the dishwasher as Jon cleaned up the rest of the kitchen.

She just pulled the dishtowel through the handle of the oven when Jon’s arms wrapped around her, hoisting her up. He was carrying her differently than he had when he brought her into the apartment. This time they were face to face and Sansa wrapped her legs around his waist.

“What, are you going to carry me to the bedroom?”

“Mhmm,” he affirmed, lifting her again.

“You know my feet work perfectly fine, right?”

“I’m enjoying this. Let me be romantic.”

Sansa didn’t comment then, only grinned, that humming in her body quickening.

This time, Jon didn’t set her down once they were in the room, continuing to hold her, only turning so that she was facing the room.

“Jon,” she breathed, taking in the room.

There wasn’t a box in sight, but that wasn’t what she noticed first. It was the candles. And the flowers in the vase next to the bed.

It was the fact that he’d made it look the way she did for their first time.

“You didn’t have to do all this,” she whispered.

“I know. I wanted to.”

A question bubbled inside Sansa, but she swallowed it down. She didn’t want to know if he had done the same for Ygritte.

She turned her eyes back to him and was overwhelmed by how soft and how dark his eyes were. He wasn’t looking at her eyes though. He was staring hungrily at her mouth.

Desire flooded Sansa.

Desire, and relief. They’d been back a week and they hadn’t done much more than make out. After three months of nearly nothing, Sansa had thought them returning to KLU would mean not leaving the bedroom. When that didn’t happen, it scared Sansa, so she found the lust that was radiating from Jon rather reassuring.

She found his mouth hot on her collarbone reassuring, especially as it made its way up her neck and found her lips.

Sansa tightened her legs around his waist, pushing them closer together. He stumbled back until her shoulders hit the wall.

She felt his hands everywhere: in her hair, on her thighs, her butt, her ribs, her chest, her back.

 _Seven hells, did his hands feel like heaven_ , she thought, before they were moving again, and she was being tossed on the bed, Jon braced above her.

Straddling her hips, he quickly shed his shirt before tugging hers over her head and yanking the sports bra off after it. Sansa pulled Jon back down to her, capturing his mouth with hers, but he quickly broke the kiss to instead make his way slowly down her body, flames licking up in a wake behind his mouth.

Sansa was gasping by the time he was pulling her shorts and underwear off, his tongue teasing at the joints of her thighs.

“Seven hells, Jon,” she whined, wiggling to try to get his tongue where she wanted it. She felt his chuckle against her hip, and his arm looped around her stomach to hold her still. She let out a low moan instead.

Sansa breathed sharply in through her nose when his tongue finally reached home, swirling slowly, still teasing, just enough to send shock waves through her nervous system.

Just when her fists started grasping the sheets and she felt tension coiling, Jon stopped.

Sansa lay here, breathing deeply with her eyes closed, while she heard Jon rustle around in the nightstand for a condom. She heard it land next to them on the bed, and she jerked with surprise when his fingers picked up where his tongue left off.

With his mouth free, Sansa dragged his head to hers, her fingers locked in his hair. She gasped into his mouth and he groaned into hers as his fingers worked inside her.

When his fingers left her, Sansa adjusted her position, waiting for him to put the condom on, but Jon’s hands clutched her waist and flipped them so that she was astride him.

“Thought we could test out the new headboard,” Jon rasped, propped up on his elbows so that he could rumble it in her ear and punctuate it by nipping her earlobe.

Sansa glanced up at the headboard. She hadn’t noticed it before, but now saw the wrought iron swirled pattern that suggested adult rather than teenager.

“Mhmm,” she mumbled in response, a craving pulsing through her, rendering her nearly speechless. Jon held her hips, steadying her as she sank down onto him.

Sansa moved slowly at first, bent over and kissing Jon as she did, but Jon pushed her up until she was sitting straight and holding on to the headboard for balance. The pads of his thumbs ran gently over her nipples until she was rocking, using the headboard for leverage.

Sansa was fairly sure this was the loudest she’d ever been during sex, but Jon was pushing up into her and she was bouncing down onto him and she didn’t care because Jon was moaning too.

With enough force that the headboard was knocking slightly against the wall, Sansa came, back arching and head thrown back. Jon’s fingers tightened on her butt as he picked up speed, burying his head into her chest until he collapsed beneath her, both of them panting.

Sansa slid off, lying beside him long enough to catch her breath before walking unabashedly naked across their new apartment to the bathroom.

Jon appeared a few minutes later, after Sansa had cleaned up.

“Checking yourself out?” he joked, sliding past her to lift the lid of the toilet. Sansa twisted again, trying to see her bare butt in the mirror.

“I think you’ve bruised my arse,” she joked, looking at the crescent marks left from how tightly Jon had clutched her.

The toilet flushed and Jon leaned around, gently biting at one of the marks she was inspecting.

“Ah! Come here, let me get a mark on you, then.” She lunged at him, teeth bared. He turned off the faucet just in time to dodge her attempt at his neck.

“You can leave all the marks you want on me,” he promised, flipping off the bathroom light, wrapping her in his arms, and shuffling her back into the bedroom.

* * *

Sansa guessed it was probably very early in the morning based on the light that came through the gap in the curtains. She and Jon were curled next to each other in bed, the dogs sleeping quietly beneath the window. They’d finally allowed the dogs in the room after Jon started yawning between their caresses.

“I’ve been waiting all summer for that,” Jon murmured, his fingers trailing gentle patters across the small of her back.

“Really?” Sansa asked. She’d tried to make the question sound sarcastic, but it came out the way she meant it: as a legitimate clarification.

“Of course,” he answered, sounding affronted. “What… Did you think.... that I didn’t want…?” Sansa shrugged one shoulder, embarrassed by her answer.

“I got the not wanting to sneak around my parents’, but we’ve been back for a week, and…” she trailed off, shrugging again.

“That week killed me, Sansa. I just… I wanted to wait until we got a place of our own. Seemed appropriate.” This time it was Jon who shrugged.

“You could’ve told me that, Jon,” she said calmly, pushing her fingers through his sweat-dampened curls. He sighed.

“I know. I should’ve. I’m sorry.” He leaned over to kiss her softly. Sansa let him, expecting him to settle back into the pillow they were sharing. Instead, he rolled her so that she was straddling his chest again.

Sansa let out a loud laugh that probably woke one or both of the dogs, but she didn’t turn to check because Jon was nibbling at her thigh.

“What, again?” she joked.

“Got a lot of time to make up for,” he mumbled, voice rumbling into her as he pulled her so she was straddling his face instead. Sansa gripped the headboard, deciding it was her new favorite piece of furniture.

**Author's Note:**

> So the conversation Sansa and Catelyn have was originally going to be in the original fic, but it ended up not fitting. I hope this helps explain Catelyn's behavior a little bit more. 
> 
> I hope to have the next one up by early April. 
> 
> Thank you all for the comments, kudos, and love. 
> 
> Hit me up on tumblr @thewolvescalledmehome if there's anything in this 'verse you'd like to see.


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